1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a scanner, and more particularly, to a scanner with an external keyboard for controlling operations of the scanner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. FIG. 1 is a perspective diagram of a prior art scanner 10. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the scanner 10 in FIG. 1. The scanner 10 comprises a scanner housing 12, a control circuit 14 installed in the scanner housing 12 for controlling operations of the scanner 10, a scanning module 16 installed in the scanner housing 12 and connected to the control circuit 14 for scanning a document and generating corresponding document image signals, and a user interface 20 installed on the scanner housing 12 and connected to the control circuit 14. The user interface 20 comprises a plurality of keys 21 for inputting key signals.
The control circuit 14 comprises a memory 24 for storing programs and data, and a processor 26 for executing the programs in the memory 24. The memory 24 comprises an operating system 28 for controlling the operations of the processor 26, a scanning module driving program 30 executed under the operating system 28 for controlling the operations of the scanning module 16 and processing the document image signals generated by the scanning module 16, a user interface driving program 32 executed under the operating system 28 for controlling the operations of the user interface 20, and an application program 36 executed under the operating system 28 for setting the operation mode of the scanning module driving program 30 and the processing method of the image signals according to the key signals inputted by the user and transmitted by using the user interface driving program 32.
The control circuit 14 controls the operations of the scanner 10 according to the key signals inputted by the user and transmitted from the user interface 20. Because the space on the scanner housing 12 is very limited, the scanner housing 12 is unable to accommodate sufficient number of regular sized keys 21. Unless the keys 21 are made very small, the small number of keys 21 may limit the performance of the scanner 10. Moreover, it is very costly to install a large number of small keys 21 on the scanner 10. And it will make the scanner 10 look cumbersome if a great number of large keys 21 are installed on the scanner 10.
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide a scanner with an external keyboard to solve the mentioned problem.
Briefly, in a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides a scanner comprising:
a scanner housing;
a control circuit installed in the scanner housing for controlling operations of the scanner;
a scanning module installed in the scanner housing and connected to the control circuit for scanning a document and generating corresponding document image signals;
a keyboard connected to the control circuit for inputting key signals; and
a display panel installed on the surface of the scanner housing and connected to the control circuit for displaying signals transmitted from the control circuit;
wherein the control circuit controls the operations of the scanner according to the key signals inputted by a user through the keyboard, and displays the key signals or instruction messages on the display panel.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the scanner has an external keyboard. Therefore various key signals can be easily inputted through regular sized keys on the keyboard to control operations of the scanner.
These and other objects and the advantages of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after having read the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.